Iran protest movement subsides amid crackdown

THE protest movement in Iran had subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said yesterday, one week after the start of the biggest protests in years challenging the Islamic republic’s theocratic system.

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IRANIANS attend the funerals of more than 100 security forces personnel killed in recent protests in Tehran this week.

(AFP)

The threat of new military action by the US against Iran has also appeared to have receded for the time being, with a Saudi official saying Gulf allies had persuaded US President Donald Trump to give the Iranian leadership a “chance”.

Protests sparked by economic grievances started with a shutdown in the Tehran bazaar on December 28 but turned into a mass movement demanding the removal of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

People started pouring into the streets in big cities from January 8 but authorities immediately enforced a shutdown of the internet that has lasted over a week and activists say is aimed at masking the scale of the crackdown.

The repression has “likely suppressed the protest movement for now”, said the US-based Institute for the Study of War, which has monitored the protest activity.

But it added: “The regime's widespread mobilisation of security forces is unsustainable, however, which makes it possible that protests could resume.”